Alex Norton
Started it as a stop gap as I was waiting for a book in my library queue to be available I found it very well produced. Interesting story both for the community and for the lives of the people involved.
Although dotted with moments of great frustration the memoir is one that does bear true to doing something dumb for all the wrong reasons and it ending up being a defining moment.
A very enjoyable, rather nerdy romp of a tale about a character who should know better going doing all the right things for the wrong reasons and at the same time not doing the right thing. The moral dilemma he finds himself in is overcome by his “engineeriness” in wanting to apply solutions to every problems instead of trying to understand them and empathizing. If you like Joe Abercrombie this book has the same kind of rather crass sense of humour. I loved it.
This is a fine debut book. Although I love the genre I am not very well read so the only other author I feel has the same approach would be Iain M Banks or Le Guin - with greater care to highlight the framework than drive the plot forward with action. I will look forward to the next one.
I initially read this book back in the 80s with far too much earnestness. I am sure I would have given it 5 stars then and waxed lyrical about it. Thirty years later it can across my path again and i re-read it and enjoyed it immensely but for very different reasons. This time i loved the humour, I read it with more of a childlike amusement at the fun of the surface of the story. The “depth” below the surface was still there but I did not need to dwell on it except to recognize, after many more years of reading under my belt, how Calvino did reflect so many aspects of reading and books.
Like the first one this is wonderfully easy to consume legal thriller, but there is not much else to add. Can be polished off on a single long flight.
I have no qualms admitting that most of my reading is via audio. Long walks , commutes, makes it an ideal format to absorb a good story. The form of distribution of the tale (eye vs ear) I usually feel is agnostic to the tale itself but every now and then it is important. In the case of Scalzi's Head On series it is fundamental in driving one of the main sub plots (Is the protagonist male or female?) But in other cases a good narrator can help or hinder a good/bad book. In The Milkman's case I am so happy I listened to it. It is now a cliche' to talk about Irish lyricism in writing but listening to Milkman just reinforces such beliefs in rhythm of repetition, with slight modification at each iteration, in the mixture of love and revulsion to a Belfast (or Derry I'm not that good) accent vs a South of the Border accent. The setting of the Troubles is a fascinating time for me which I have started to learn more about through Adrian McKinty Sean Duffy's series [b:The Cold Cold Ground 13008754 The Cold Cold Ground (Detective Sean Duffy, #1) Adrian McKinty https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355027843s/13008754.jpg 18170309]. The lack of proper nouns works well especially when I noticed that the only name mentioned is that of the family dog. The story, I think, takes second fiddle to the historical context of the tale, and how, tribalism can cause such misery in people's lives.
If you love DA it will fill you with such sadness that he died way too early. If you know him peripherally then give this collection a miss. Three stars are the average between the five I would give with my heart and brain, and the one for the very uneven collection of material.
More of a thriller than a whodunnit but the characters are interesting and the book is short and has pace. Merit of Booker longlist selection? I picked it up because of it but left not quite convinced of it.
Second Moore book after I read and enjoyed “Lamb”. This one is a perfect audio book for the commute, rich in cliches deftly pulled off, a simple story, caricatures of characters and kept together by Moore's ability for a simile” You know that when you hear the word “like” a pretty good one is coming. Plus points for setting it in San Francisco just after the WWII
Mick Herron has some of the nicest, most delicious, sentences around. And Jackson Lamb continues to be one of my Top five favourite fictional characters. And I just saw a photo of Gary Oldman as him and he is perfect...
Wanted to enjoy it more. I loved the premise, i loved the careful build up and structure, the writing was excellent however by the end I felt slightly “over-flogged” with the “message.” Also it really was quite annoying to have some of the threads just go nowhere within the main narrative.
I am really becoming very fond of Higahino. In every book he has surprised me. This one is a perfectly crafted murder tale where the murder takes second place to the Columbo-like working back (not quite but you can easily guess the culprit about 2/3 through. But he is original in his slicing horizontally through the vertical plot timeline, taking time with each chapter reveling characters, their lives, how they played (or did not) in the outcome. I wish he would be translated more becuase he is a fine craftsman.
Hovers over 2 stars “It was OK”, Hovers over 3 stars “I liked it”. Yep that about sums it up. The Martian was a riot with a wonderful plot line and characters. Artemis is a bit of a forced plot driver on a potentially interesting basis - lunar base. Hats off for the choice of the new “Hero” but does it work? Not really. This is not really a case of “Should try harder” but of the contrary - maybe he should have tried less hard to create a page turner and let his attention for detail flourish more. Still. I did like it and it was a very easy read.
Ugh, I hate to give a “It was OK” 2 stars to Kevin Hearne but apart from some really pretty good puns and witticisms the story is just does not click. Back to Oberon and the Iron Druid series for light relief.
Damn, damn. I really like Ian Mortimer's Non-Fiction “Time Traveller” series which I find eminently readable, interesting, and with good flow. I also loved the basis of this novel; The idea of time travelers going back in time are plenty but sending the POV character forward is rarer. However in the end this book did not work for me. It was a bit of a plod morality tale instead of what could have been. The erudition is there and it is not laid on so thickly to be an impediment to the plot, it is just that, for me, the plot fell a bit flat and was episodic.
One of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. It is a simply and superbly crafted novel with interesting characters, and like a good play it uses the confine of a closed stage to create the tensions and drive the plot. I would have happily read more on many of the relationships between Sasha and Ospina, or Richard. It was a pleasure to pick up every time.
This one was a peach of a book, with sparkling writing and characters (many of which i found disagreeable - and therein the ability of the author). But the whole thing brought to life with a fantastic reading bu Lin Manuel. Outstanding job.
Another nice twist to the genre. I might need to read Paul Auster's New York trilogy but there are few whodunnits that so actively blend the author into the tale. Very well executed, blending of fact and fiction.
I love the author, but he definitely needed better guidance on this one. What could have been an interesting scifi book instead goes down the thriller route which exposes Al-Khalili's limitations as a writer. Not sure if the editors gave him an “ABC Primer of thriller writing” but we have all the tropes here, from washed-up heroes in need of rehabilitation, reconnecting to estranged family members, villains, tenuous and “I've got to have a love interest because my editor tells me so”
And so, from a wonderfully interesting plot background which could have been developed without needing to resort to cliches where the ignition is the focal point we are treated to international terrorism hunt. SI was hoping this would have been less attempt at a best seller and more a book i walked away thinking.
Yep, my wife and Doug were right, this is a fun Novella. I tend to be more comfortable with the longer format but it has been in my “to read” list for some time so got thorugh it in a sitting (or in my case gardening...)Sequels ar lined up, and any one that like the themes should read a slightly different take Scalzi shows in [b:Lock In 21418013 Lock In (Lock In, #1) John Scalzi https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1438701397l/21418013.SY75.jpg 26115712]